Do people in Williamsburg care about their food? “Absolutely. The majority are NYU-student dipshits who are buying their clothes at Urban Outfitters and are living here because it’s cool.” (Do not click if butchers holding pig heads upset you.)–Grub Street

Cranford Rose Garden Timelapse at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Vimeo.

We found this via Brownstoner yesterday afternoon, which found it via Flatbush Gardener. It is a time lapse of the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and it is very, very, very cool.

Summer begins at 7:59 PM tonight and, of course, today is the longest day of the year, per the 2008 Equinox and Solstice map, time zone by time zone. Happy Summer!!!–Archaeastronomy

[Photo courtesy of Mirabelle Studios]

Here is the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is blooming beautifully right now and providing many rose photo ops. The pic of the crowd comes from artist and GL Contributor Gary Mirabelle.

The weather outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory on this longest day of the year and first day of summer. There will be “More sun than clouds with a shower or thunderstorm in the area this afternoon” and a high of 78. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 64.–Accuweather

The Astoria Federal Savings Bank at 10th Street and Fifth Avenue was robbed today, which led to what at first appeared to be an evacuation of MS 51 on Fifth Street and Fifth Avenue a short time later. (It was later noted that many students were outside at the time of the incident and the school was subsequently “locked down.”) There were reports of helicopters hovering over the neighborhood and someone at the 78th Precinct told a skeptical OTBKB that is was “routine training.” Photographer and GL Contributor Nate Kensinger, who was in the neighborhood shooting photos, offers a first-hand report:

They evacuated MS 51 on 5th ave/5th street after the bank up the street was robbed – the Astoria Federal Savings on 10th street and 5th avenue. One of the bank robbers was caught but the other was loose and they thought he might have been around the school… after yesterday’s gunman/evacuation up in cypress hills, I guess the police are edgy. A helicopter, motorcycle cops, atf agents, undercover cops, meter maids…They all converged on the school. More cops then I have seen in a while. all the kids were out on the street, running around, crazy. Anyhow, quite a scene.

Some “training.”

The sound checks of the massive system setup in Prospect Park’s for tomorrows blockbuster Metropolitan Opera show were echoing for many, many blocks in Park Slope yesterday, and now, a GL Correspondent reports that the ballfields will be closed for some extra time because setup activity caused some problems. Per our correspondent: “So much damage was caused to the ball fields setting up the stage that all ball fields will be closed for repairs through the weekend and possibly longer. The Parks department is not too happy about this.” We haven’t been able to get over for any photos that would confirm problems. Up to 150,000 people are expected for the show tomorrow night by the superstar husband and wife team of Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.

This Obey poster, which has been decorated with the always popular pink cloud and lightning bolt, is on Dunham Place near Broadway in South Williamsburg.

Our friends at Racked are bringing news that Seventh Avenue’s Bird is leaving its nest for a new spot on Fifth Avenue. Per Racked: “We’ve just received word that owner Jennifer Mankins will be shuttering the current Bird Park Slope (at 430 Seventh Ave) to open another Slope store on bustling Fifth Ave.” The Seventh Ave. location is closing on July 28. The new Bird will be nesting at 316 5th Avenue. Brownstoner, meanwhile, has Bird’s blog about opening a new store in Williamsburg.

How often does this happen: You check out the lineup of the city’s free outdoor concerts — SummerStage, Prospect Park’s Celebrate Brooklyn, JellyNYC’s Pool Parties, the Seaport Music Fest, Siren — and don’t recognize half the bands’ names. So for our latest mix we asked Matt Tyson of the fantastic, and fabulously revamped music site EAR FARM (check out the new look!) to curate a mix of bands, obscure and familiar, playing all these music series. Download the free, 100 percent legal mix here, or listen now to our Endless Summer muxtape.–Brooklyn Based

[Photo courtesy of superkb/flickr]

This will be one of the last street fairs we post about until the Atlantic Antic because we have reached the point where we are officially over them. That having been said, Sunday (6/22) is the “Smith Street Sunday Funday” fair. It runs from 11AM-6PM. From an email about it:

There is something special about Smith Street’s Annual Festival. It is not just coordinated — it is “curated”. We start with a street full of special shops with an eclectic variety of things you will want to wear, consume, eat, or otherwise enjoy…We are eight blocks long — deliberately not the longest or the biggest because we aim to bring you Brooklyn’s most exotically perfect bazaar!!

There are, of course, many more street fairs to come.

[Photo courtesy of Julie Lemberger/Dusan Tynek Dance Theater]

The Brooklyn Lyceum is abuzz with Czech choreographer Dusan Tynek’s latest dance creations. His seven-person, Brooklyn-based company presents two works, “Fleur-de-lis” (2007) and “Apian Way,” a premiere. The new “Apian Way,” set to partitas and sonatas by Bach, is inspired by the social interaction of bees and the mystery of their modern day disappearance. Tynek fuses drama and form to convey the curiosity, elegance, and intensity of the bees’ work and world, even as their colony appears on the brink of collapse. The result is an astonishing opposition of lightness and weight, playfulness and stateliness, amplitude and malfunction. (The Times reviewed the performance last week.)

If you already love modern dance, you’ll be entranced by Tynek’s inventiveness. If you’re new to modern dance, you’ll be entranced by Tynek’s inventiveness. And if you’ve never been to the Brooklyn Lyceum, you’ll love the intimacy of this small, down-to-earth performance space as it transforms into a hive of kinetic and Baroque forces. Dusan Tynek Dance Theater performs on June 17, 19, 24, and 26 at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 Fourth Avenue, at President Street, Park Slope; brooklynlyceum.com; dusantynek.org.

—Anna Lewis

[Photo courtesy of Tracy Collins/flickr]

We posted about the Saturday block party on Dean Street yesterday, but can’t resist this photo put in our GL Photo Pool by Tracy Collins that shows construction work on Dean Street plus a flier for the block party. Most of the buildings on the left are slated to come down for the Atlantic Yards development.

So, a guy lost his Blackberry at the Isaac Hayes show at Celebrate Brooklyn last week. He got it back. Here, per the Brooklynian thread, is what happened:

I lost my Blackberry during the Isaac Hayes show in Prospect Park. I just got it back today, this morning from the guy who works watching the stage in the evening. He said someone was nice enough to return it. So to whoever returned it, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! Thank you for keeping all my data intact and ESPECIALLY also for the raunchy picture you left me in the phones gallery. I enjoyed it and got a great laugh.

Sadly, the photo hasn’t been posted, but here’s a bit more detail:

its very raunchy, I’d get booted off the board for sure. It looks like an amateur photo of two girls going at it from the most unflattering angle. As far as the show, I finished a bottle of grey goose, so goes without saying, the show was spectacular… pretty blasted, come to think of it, I guess thats why I lost the phone in the first place.

There is much discussion, not about the Blackberry, but about the photo that came back with the returned device.

[Photo courtesy of s5r5h/flickr]

Do read the words that accompany this photo, which is titled “Ikea Madness”:

ok, so i HAD to go to the opening of the brooklyn ikea. got there on the b61, my usual bus home. this time i stayed on to the end. it dropped you off right at the front door, into the mouth of madness!!! so many people! ushered up 2 flights into showroom hell, i couldn’t wait to get down to the ‘self service’ section. i had ideas that i’d get a cutting board, some bowl, knives, maybe sheets…. but it was packed. kids running amuck, shopping carts SLOWLY pushed around. couldn’t stand it! found a sales associate, and asked for the quickest way out.

Yes, “the mouth of madness.”

[Photo courtesy of subatomicfilms/flickr]

Trees have been coming down here and there in the storms we’ve been having and, as usual, parked cars are among those paying the ultimate price. This photo posted to flickr by subatomicfilms who also has some Ikea opening frenzy shots posted up. The fallen tree and crunched car are from Bay Ridge Parkway.

Here’s a short vid shot yesterday on the esplanade behind the new Ikea in Red Hook.

“The designy walls have been finished and ready for coloring at the Coney Island USA building. They plan to be open provisionally in time for the Mermaid Parade, though the interior may still be in the process of completion.”–Kinetic Carnival

Want to see any musicals? A new TKTS Discount Ticket Booth will be opening on July 10 at MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn. Translation: tix for Broadway, Off Broadway, music, dance and Brooklyn performing arts events at discounts available Downtown. The booth will offer tickets for same-day evening shows and matinees the following day for up to 50 percent off like the Manhattan ones. (It does, of course, mean missing out on the upcoming Times Square “Stairway to Nowhere” upgrade.) TKTS Downtown Brooklyn will be located on the ground floor of 1 MetroTech Center at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue. Hours are Monday-Friday from 11AM-6PM. It is located right outside of the Jay Street-Borough Hall station of the A, C and F trains and near the Court Street – Borough Hall station of the M, R, 2, 3, 4, 5 trains and the Lawrence Street station of the M, and R trains.

“First came the elation – then the frustration. Customers love the Ikea furniture, especially the low prices. But lo the assembly! The Daily News hooked up with college professor Yvonne Mullings as she took her brand-new $69.99 Malm- a white three-drawer bedroom chest – flattened down tight into a bulky brown box, into her Brownsville, Brooklyn, flat. ‘I should have an engineering degree to do this,’ quipped Mullings as she looked at the wood pieces, pegs, screws and other parts before her.”–NYDN

These two buildings are 146 and 150 Broadway in Williamsburg, near Bedford Avenue. The rat poison signs went up on them a while ago, which is always a sign of impending change. Building plans were approved four years ago for a seven-story building at 150 Broadway, but the property was later sold. In any case, a demolition permit for the current building was issued in May. The more interesting of the pair in terms of paperwork is 146 Broadway, which shows a plan filed in February for a 14-story building by architect Robert Scarano. (Curiously, the building is also shown as being 270 feet tall.) The plans were disapproved, and it appears to have been withdrawn in full or partially for now. Will another Finger rise or will it be amputated before it can be raised? Both properties are owned by Bridgeview at Broadway LLC

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

· The Horror in the Aftermath of a Little Boy Killed in Brooklyn [NYT]
· Guy with Gun Runs into Cypress Hills School and Hides [NYP]
· Of Course: The Crappy Cake School Prank Idea Came from MTV [NYDN]
· Markowitz Says Brooklyn Has “Friendly” Residential Density [AYR]
· Four Developments Coming to One Stretch of Carroll Street [Brownstoner]
· Meet Our Williamsburg Fart Cloud Building Pile Driver [Bad Advice]
· Meet the Neighbors, Episode 9 [Bed-Stuy Blog]
· 13th Street Cactus Flowers [Brooklynometry]
· Newkirk Ave. Block Party on Saturday [Ditmas Park Blog]
· Cube 63 Tea Lunches [ABL]
· More Retro Coney Photos [Kinetic Carnival]

Herewith, a selection of shows coming up in Brooklyn today through Sunday.

Thursday 6/19/08
BAM Rythym & Blues Festival at Metrotech: The Skatalites – Free, 12:00pm

Music Hall of Williamsburg: Shearwater, Frog Eyes, Evangelicals $13 advance / $15 day of show, 9:00pm

Union Pool: Jezebel Music: Cassettes Won’t Listen, Zigmat, Boys & Girls Club, Whole Wheat and The Action News $8, 8:00pm

Barbes: Andy Statman (Mandolin) $10 8:00pm / Matt Munisteri $10 10:00pm

Friday 6/20/08
Union Hall: Jukebox The Ghost, Via Audio, El Ten Eleven $10 advance/ $12 day of show, 8:00pm

Barbes: Queen Esther $10 8:00pm / The Moonlighters $10 10:00pm

McCarren Park Pool: Gogol Bordello, State Radio $35, 5:00pm

Click here for the Saturday & Sunday Music Goodness.

“A Brooklyn appeals judge yesterday sprang disgraced ex-assemblywoman Diane Gordon from prison, issuing a stay of sentence that allows her to remain free until her appeal is decided. Justice Steven Fisher ordered Gordon, 58, released on $100,000 bail from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester, where she was set to begin a 2-to-6-year sentence. The former assemblywoman was convicted in April of promising to help a shady developer win a contract to develop a piece of city land, in exchange for an offer to build her a $500,000 home in a gated community.”–NYP

It was a taste of December on Bedford Avenue a couple of days ago as part of a sidewalk sales display that also included a beach umbrella and a raised car hood. Good thing Frosty didn’t literally melt in the heat.